Bears bring in TE Walker for visit

The Bears took a close look at a potential replacement for John Gilmore on Wednesday when they hosted Aaron Walker at Halas Hall. The most important part of the visit was likely a medical check on his shoulder, which was surgically repaired in November after he suffered a torn labrum playing for the St. Louis Rams.

Walker is bigger than Gilmore at 6-6, 270 pounds, and was a fifth-round pick by San Francisco in 2003 from Florida, where he played with quarterback Rex Grossman. When the Rams placed Walker on injured reserve, they signed offensive tackle Mark Levoir off the Bears’ practice squad. Walker is considered a solid in-line blocker who will not do a lot in the passing game. Gilmore was actually an effective receiver in the red zone, particularly at the goalline. The Bears wanted to keep him but were not willing to pay him more than the veteran minimum and he signed a $3 million, three-year contract with Tampa Bay.

The one thing Walker did not do much of with the Rams was play special teams. That’s something you need from a third tight end and Gilmore was a solid special teams contributor, particularly on returns. Walker did serve as the backup long snapper in St. Louis. Keep him on the radar for the time being. It’s a position that needs to be filled.

Categories:

No TrackBacks

19 Comments

Maybe it's just me, but when I see something like this it make me question the Bears confidence in Clark and Olsen, two fine TE's with great talent when the Bears organization should be focusing on the O-line, WR's and particularly RB's. They should also be placing more heart into Hester and Harris at this moment than another TE. But that's simply my opinion.

Screw talking about TE, i like that he's a REX guy sign him for cheap. GET BRYANT JOHNSON and offense is good to go. Spend the money we need him!!! just watch B-lloyd's sucker freestyle on youtube and you can tell this guy is as dumb a muhsin. I was an athlete at U of I when he was there and BL is about as tough as deion sanders. He is a baller as a no.3 but a bust as a no.2.

with getting bryant johnson we can just draft a RB with the top pick, then go all o-line. sign a few vet db's and we're good to go. bazuin's coming back, al brown, tommie, Adewale, mikey b, lachs and the rest can hold down the "d". pick up a few vet dbs for cheap and its back to the SB.

If he was a backup long snapper on special teams, he is capable of playing special teams. I would rather see Bennie Joppru, who is a little more athletic, but as long as we get the blocking tight end, I will be happy. Idonije and Gilmore were a great combination on coverage and blocking teams, as very few teams have people of their size running down the field. Joppru would be slightly faster, but maybe not as physical.

I was disappointed the Bears lost Mark Levoir I thought he could develop into an eventual starter at right tackle for the Bears. I knew back in the preseason if Levoir didn't make the 53 man roster that he would be back on the practice squad and then another team would sign him away and the Rams did. I think what stoped Levoir from making the 53 man roster was his inability to man the left side. I noticed in the preseason the Bears lined him up at left tackle to see if he could handle it and I noticed he had problems with speed rushers. Levoir didn't necessarily have to be a full time left tackle but he had to prove to the Bears he could come in and man the left side for a few game if Tait were to go down. If Levoir would have not had problems with speed rushers like he did in the preseason the Bears would have probably put Levoir on the 53 man roster over John St. Clair and then the Bears could have got younger at the position last fall. Oh well hopefully Angelo and the crew can make the right moves this coming April at the position GO BEARS!!

Marty Booker has the size and speed (slowness) to be a tight end and I've always thought so. Now that I'm gone chicagoland better hope Devine Hester learns to get open deep or teams will go to eight man fronts and play their safeties shallow so the bears cannot get off the bus running.With thomas Jones in 2006 we did'nt start running the ball well till me and grossman started burning teams deep midway thruough the season. for decades defenses play the bears shallow becouse of 1)no o line 2) no Q.B. and 3) recievers with seperation issues. Good luck chicago, your only a few years of rebuilding away while I'll be in the playoffs.

I ASK EVERY DIE HARD BEARS FAN DO WE TRUST IN THIS SYSTEM OF CONSTANT FAILUER. it take talent to win in the NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE.and that talent dont come cheap i look at the moves that was made and i say will they ever bring some one in to help brian urlacher win before he decide to retire.you have to have somone you can throw the ball to and as horrible as rex grossman played at times and as good as he played at times were still not thinking long term here a one year deal for this guy thats with out question is going to be the starting qb why not give him someone to throw the ball to because booker aint it.

Angelo is bottom feeding. I don't know what to believe about what is happening with the Bears. Is Angelo just completey incompetent or do we see the invisible hand of Michael McCaskey?

As you'll recall, we were told that the City and State had to pay for a new stadium so the Bears could compete in the NFL. They needed the revenue the new stadium would bring to the organization so they could compete in attracting the better players. Now we learn that 'Just because you have the money you don't have to spend it.'

Besides screwing up and not locking up Berrian LAST year when it was apparent he was the ONLY NFL calibur receiver on the roster, the Bears have been on the sidelines during free agency. The problems with the bears could have been taken care of in Free agency. It would just have taken the money the new stadium is bringing into the club. Alan Fanica and Michael Turner would have made the bears offense at least a top 20 offense. Now, the Bears will field the WORST offense in the NFL. Worse than the Run and Shoop days! The defense will be yelling to the offense...'Just hold 'em!'

Unrelated topic, but what about Kevin Jones? He gives us fits, and while I think he still bounces to the outside way too early, he might be a decent complement to Benson, and if nothing else, he will push Ced to be better.

Also, by releasing him, the Lions appear to be signing up for a back early in the draft. Tatum Bell and Aveion Cason? No way Marinelli goes into the season with those two as his top backs. That opens the market for the Bears pick, as Arizona, Houston, possibly Tampa, and maybe even Dallas or the Giants might be interested in getting ahead of Matt Millen to get Mendenhall or Stewart. Could be good news for us. Either way, we can hurt the Lions. We either let someone in the door ahead of them, or force them to give up more than they should to give them the pick. It is possible that Millen is putting up a smokescreen, but he really is not that clever.

Who cares about tight ends!!!!!!!!!! We have 2 good ones already!! Why is Angelo wasting his time with this?? What about WR, OL, RB, QB????? If he plans on filling these needs in the draft he is full of it!!! Why didnt he go after Warrick Dunn??? We have no running back!!!!! Hello!!! Just rebuild with a rookie QB, if you are gonna lose anyway, might as well be developing somebody!! This guy ticks me off!!!

How about this? We wait until the 5th round, and select Darrell Strong, the kid from Pittsburgh. He is a solid blocker, and appears to be similar to Gilmore in that he can be a red zone threat because of his size. He would be cheaper than Walker, and would probably be hungrier. Walker's rep is he doesn't play with much urgency, and seems slow to do whatever he does. A rookie would be more interested in making his mark, and that includes special teams play.

I agree with Joe about kevin jones when he is healthy he can be a beast! I like Mendenhall...maybe too much for the bears to draft him cause he wont be successful for the bears cause we will find a way to screw that up and angelo will chizzle that low ball offer for the home town discount.seeing as if u arent urlacher or briggs or a defensive player that he drafted u prob wont be retiring in chicago so if we get em we will lose him at some point... if we get kevin jones then we can afford to go straight into drafting the o-line and get a running back with less hype that will still fit in our offense.

KillerKane, YOU SAID IT!
Let's just hope the Bears dont trade down at the draft in order to avoid paying a mid-first rounder.
P.S. the one time in recent memory that they spent on a high draft pick, they spent it on BENSON... what a colossal bust.

Someone asked why Angelo would waste time on a 3'rd TE... Well, it's not like he doesn't have the time, anyway, it's not Angelo is scheduling the visits, doing the physicals ect... He talks to the players agents, tells his assistants to set up a visit and he moves on to next player. Besides, we have a need soley to add competition in camp. Clark and Olson are a top notch combo but we need a 3'rd as a security blanket in case we have injury to the starters plus we need someone to do the dirty work in goal line situations that Olson may not be a perfect fit for. Watch out for PS TE Fontel Miner, he could be the front runner to replace Gilmore and he had a very good showing in his 2007 pre-season games...

Mark Lavoir was not good enough to be an NFL OT period, that's why Angelo left him on the PS and didn't match the Rams to kepp Lovoir. Angelo didn't want to make room for him to put him on the active roster so he was gone. No biggie.. ST.Claire is hands down better then Lovoir, we may have gotten younger with Lovoir but we would have gottne even worse with him in the line up if that is even possible !!

To the guy who said the Bears are cheap and don't spend all that new stadium revnue maybe you should Google the word "NFL salary cap" and do some reading.... Don't forget that Devin Hester, Tommie Harris, Mark Bradley, Mark Anderson, Jamar Williams, Hunter Hillenmeyer, Robbie Gould, Adewlawe Agunleye, Grossman(again), to name a few all we be FA's in the next (2) years so if we want to retian some of these players, Angelo is going to have to eork out extensions for them as well which means pay raises for some of these guy's which means more cap hits down the road.

Angelo would be smart to try and sign (1)of the remaining FA OT's and then use the majority of the remaining cap space on signing bonus money on ectensions for Hester, Harris and Gould. Draft weekend he then needs to select to fill needs at OT, RB, QB, WR, safety, LB, DT and maybe an O-Gaurd.